"I wonder why the Seventh Princess is here?" Song Yan looked at the person standing in front of him. She took off her cloak, revealing a young face.
This face was all too familiar to him. It was none other than Princess Lening, the Seventh Princess who had once brought Ye Zhiqiu into the palace.
"If Chief Song has already guessed, why bother asking?" Lening smiled, smoothed the corner of her robe, and said.
Song Yan never expected to see Lening here. She looked only seven or eight years old. How could she have designed this scheme?
Or rather... things were not as simple as he thought.
Lening noticed Song Yan's inquisitive gaze and knew that he must have many doubts in his mind. But she had no obligation to explain anything to him.
Moreover, her target was not Song Yan. Although she didn't know why he had interfered in this matter, he didn't pose a threat to her anyway.
Lening ignored Song Yan's gaze and walked straight towards Ye Zhiqiu. But just as she took a step forward, Song Yan blocked her way with his long sword.
"Don't you dare take another step." Song Yan frowned and uttered a threat. The long sword between them glistened coldly in the moonlight.
Lening stopped and tilted her head towards Song Yan. Her almond - shaped eyes curved slightly with a smile. "Chief Song has misjudged me. After all, he is my teacher. How could I ever harm my teacher?"
As she said this, she winked at him, looking like an innocent young girl.
But meeting her here, Song Yan didn't believe that Lening was as innocent as she claimed.
She was the one who had set up this scheme, which alone proved that she was not simple.
Lening wasn't surprised to see that Song Yan still remained on guard. After all, meeting her here, it was hard for anyone to believe her innocence.
Moreover, the clue that had led them here was indeed released by her.
Having anticipated this situation, Lening raised her hand and clapped. She winked at Song Yan. "Chief Song, your opponent is not me. I hope you can live to see how your teacher dies."
As soon as she finished speaking, several people suddenly emerged from the shadows behind Lening. They held scimitars in their hands and stared intently at Song Yan.
Lening no longer put on a fake smile. She waved her hand, and the people behind her surrounded Song Yan.
The attackers went straight for the kill. Song Yan could barely block their attacks, let alone fight against four of them.
Moreover, their attack style was very familiar. They were the same people who had chased Ye Zhiqiu during the Qin Tower case!
"So it was you who sent people to chase him during the Qin Tower case?!" Song Yan looked in Lening's direction and shouted.
Lening watched Song Yan being besieged by the men. A smile curled up on her lips. Amid the clashing of weapons, she slowly said, "Yes, it was me."
"You...!" Song Yan was about to say something more, but his words were interrupted by a scimitar.
"Chief Song, I advise you not to be distracted. Otherwise, you won't be able to save your teacher, and you'll lose your own life too." Lening let out a cold snort, completely ignoring his words.
After leaving this mocking remark, she walked towards Ye Zhiqiu.
She crouched down and looked at Ye Zhiqiu's furrowed brows. A smile appeared on her lips. "Teacher Ye, we are both people with the same misfortune."
Lening sighed, then took out an incense stick from her sleeve and lit it. As the smoke curled up, she looked at Ye Zhiqiu's face and whispered, "Let's recall the very beginning, the origin of all these events..."
Suddenly, the voice in Ye Zhiqiu's ear in the illusion stopped. The corpses that had been pulling him down in the water disappeared, leaving only the sound of water waves around him.
He looked around, not knowing for a moment what was the illusion and what was the reality.
Just then, he suddenly heard Lening's voice. Ye Zhiqiu looked in the direction of the voice and saw Lening's face suddenly emerge from the bottom of the water.
Her image appeared on the water surface, constantly enticing him to go into the water. Her voice was low, with a hint of temptation.
Ye Zhiqiu seemed to lose control of himself. He looked down at their faces gradually overlapping on the water surface. As the ripples spread, he reached out and pointed at the lake.
The moment his fingertip touched the water, countless hands suddenly rose from the water and pulled him straight down.
Without any preparation, Ye Zhiqiu was pulled into the water by those hands. There was no feeling of suffocation or the weightlessness of being surrounded by water.
He opened his eyes and looked around. It seemed that there was another world underwater, and this place was very familiar to him, as if he had been there a long time ago.
"You're new here. Hurry up and run! You'll lose your life if you stay here any longer!" A young voice sounded while Ye Zhiqiu was in a daze. He turned around and saw a child.
There were whip marks on his wrist, his hair was messy, and his eyes were filled with panic. Realizing this, Ye Zhiqiu looked down at his own hands and found that he also had whip marks on his body.
But there was something different...
Ye Zhiqiu looked back and saw his current appearance in a bronze mirror not far away. He was about the same age as the child in front of him, and his appearance was the same as when he was a child.
Was he... getting smaller?
Ye Zhiqiu was completely stunned. Everything in front of him was so strange, this room and the child in front of him.
He had never seen them in his memory, but he had lost a part of his memory before the age of five.
Could it be that... he was now in that forgotten part of his memory?
Maybe that forgotten memory was the origin of all the troubles.
"Are you even listening to me? I'm telling you to run!" The child saw Ye Zhiqiu in a daze and pulled his sleeve forcefully. His voice became more urgent.
"What is this place? Do you know something?" Ye Zhiqiu had returned to the time when he had lost his memory. He just wanted to know what was going on as soon as possible. Even his voice became more urgent.
But he pulled too hard and accidentally tore the child's wound.
A Yan gasped in pain. Ye Zhiqiu knew that his action was a bit excessive, so he quickly let go and apologized to him.
A Yan seemed to be used to this. He tore off a piece of cloth and wrapped it around his wound. Looking in Ye Zhiqiu's direction, he sighed. "So you really don't know?"
Ye Zhiqiu didn't answer. Instead, he stared at A Yan, waiting for his next words.
"Actually, I don't know much either. But new children are sent here every day, and new corpses are taken out every day. I've seen too many. If you don't want to die, run away quickly."
A Yan's voice became much lower at this point, as if he had remembered something terrifying. His face turned pale. He covered his wrist and said this in extreme panic.
"If that's the case, why don't you run away?" Ye Zhiqiu looked at A Yan's expression. If it was really as terrifying as he described, why didn't he run away himself but told him to run?
Although it seemed ungrateful to question his kind reminder, his words and actions were indeed suspicious.
A Yan sat on the chair and looked out of the window at the sky. He let out a self - deprecating laugh in a low voice. "I also want to leave, but I can't escape now."
As he said this, he opened his collar. Ye Zhiqiu watched silently without interrupting. A Yan showed his chest. There were bulging blood vessels around his heart, and in the center, there was a worm - shaped thing lying there, motionless as if it was asleep.
"What is this...?!" Ye Zhiqiu was so shocked that he couldn't speak when he saw this scene. His expression when looking at A Yan was also a bit complicated.
A Yan pulled his collar back up and whispered, "As you can see, they've stuffed a worm into my body. If I take a single step out of here, not to mention running away, I might just die right here."
As he said this, he let out a self - deprecating laugh in a low voice. His voice became much lower. "So it's not that I don't want to run, but I simply can't. Run away quickly while there's still no worm in your heart!"
A Yan grabbed Ye Zhiqiu's hand. His voice became much more urgent. It seemed that he really wanted to save him.
Just then, the door was suddenly pushed open. Several people rushed into the room and interrupted their conversation.
"A Yan, come with me." The leading man said to A Yan with a smile. Although his tone was gentle, there was no emotion in his eyes.
They looked at A Yan as if he was a commodity.
A Yan didn't say much. He walked up to the man and looked back in Ye Zhiqiu's direction before leaving.
His mouth opened, and he mouthed two words.
Run away.
Ye Zhiqiu didn't expect at that time that this would be the last words A Yan would leave for him.
At night, Ye Zhiqiu shivered at the thought of the worm he had seen on A Yan. This place was indeed as A Yan had said, not a place to stay for long.
But it wasn't that easy for him to run away. There were guards outside the room. But after some observation, he found that these guards changed shifts every two hours.
If he could seize this opportunity to escape, the chance of success would be high.
Ye Zhiqiu originally wanted to see A Yan one more time, but he hadn't seen A Yan since he was taken away last time.
He had a bad feeling. He thought that A Yan might be in great danger.
But he forced this thought down. He didn't want to think in that direction. Instead, he carefully judged the right time to escape.
During this period, many children who were brought here tried to escape, but they were always caught. They would be whipped in front of the other children as a warning.
This was to set an example.
Some children couldn't bear it and were directly taken away. No one knew where they had gone in the end.
Ye Zhiqiu had been here for so long and knew some things. New children came in every day, and some children disappeared silently every day.
Ye Zhiqiu thought that they would never come back.
He didn't want to be one of those children who disappeared silently, so he had to escape. He must leave this place.
After a few days of observation, Ye Zhiqiu found a suitable opportunity to escape. He sneaked out of the room when the guards were changing shifts at the door.
He had observed the terrain these days. There was a back mountain here. Usually, no one went there. If he could overpower the guards and reach the back mountain, he would have a chance to escape.
Ye Zhiqiu successfully escaped the guards' watch and ran all the way towards the back mountain.
When he was imprisoned in the other courtyard, he had been strictly forbidden to stay near the back mountain. So no one had ever gone there.
But strangely, the guards there seemed to think it was very inauspicious. They would run away with a look of disgust whenever they passed by.
Ye Zhiqiu had once wondered what was in the back mountain that made the guards so averse to it. But it was precisely because of this that he had a chance to escape.
Now he could see for himself what he had been curious about.
When he hurriedly reached the back mountain, Ye Zhiqiu was actually a bit scared. Every rustle in the forest at night made his heart skip a beat.
But Ye Zhiqiu knew that he had no way back. From the moment he decided to escape, there was no turning back.
He could only force himself to move forward. No matter what was ahead, he could only brace himself and go on.
After running to the back mountain, he found several large and small pits here. These things made people feel creepy. Coupled with the fact that it was night, Ye Zhiqiu was afraid of being discovered. He didn't dare to look closely and quickened his pace up the mountain.
As long as he could cross this mountain, he could escape from this other courtyard.
But he ran too fast and was tripped by something. Ye Zhiqiu stumbled and fell to the ground. He looked at his knee. It was skinned and bleeding.
He didn't care much and stood up immediately, limping up the mountain. But subconsciously, he looked back and saw a pair of eyes staring at him without blinking.
Ye Zhiqiu was extremely frightened. He took a few steps back. Anyone would be scared if they were stared at by a pair of eyes in this situation.
With the faint moonlight, Ye Zhiqiu saw the person's appearance clearly.
It was A Yan!
He was stunned. He didn't expect to meet A Yan again after their last parting, but he didn't expect it to be in such a situation.
A Yan's body was buried in the soil. It was obvious that he had struggled, but he still couldn't get out of the soil. It was A Yan's outstretched hand that had tripped him just now.
Ye Zhiqiu walked up to A Yan and dug him out of the soil.
A Yan's eyes were wide open, his gaze empty, and his body was already stiff. It had rained recently, and his body was filled with the stench of a decaying corpse.
It was obvious that he had been dead for a long time. Ye Zhiqiu didn't expect to see him here after their last parting, and in such a state.
He reached out and closed A Yan's eyes. This wasn't the time to be sad.
Ye Zhiqiu looked around. It was at this moment that he understood why the guards thought this place was inauspicious and didn't come near.
Because there were corpses everywhere. The corpses of those children who never returned were simply thrown here at will.
The moonlight shone on everything in front of him. Countless corpses were lying on the ground. They had different death postures, their bodies were bloody, worms were crawling on their wounds, and countless empty gazes were looking at him.
Ye Zhiqiu suddenly felt weak in his legs.
This place was even more terrifying than he had thought.
He wanted to leave quickly, but his legs had no strength at all. A crow flew up from a branch in the forest, making a shrill cry, and a firelight appeared at the foot of the mountain.
The light was getting closer and closer to him. At that moment, Ye Zhiqiu realized.
His escape plan had failed.